


Fantasmas

by anony_mouse



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cartels, Gen, Ghosts, Jack blaming himself for the fall of ow, No Beta, Self-Hatred, Toxic Relationships, el dorado, the UN is actually to blame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 16:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11809353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anony_mouse/pseuds/anony_mouse
Summary: Jack's been seeing ghosts for two years, three months, one week and six days.Or rather,aghost.





	Fantasmas

Jack's been seeing ghosts for two years, three months, one week and six days.

Or rather, _a_ ghost.

“ _What’s the matter, cabrón? Getting slow in your old age?_ ”

“Shut up, Reyes. I’m waiting for them to lead me to their base.”

“ _Ah, but_ they’re _not going to. The blonde one that just left is going to- these guys are just gonna mill around until he comes back with their orders._ ”

“Wha-?” Fuck. He was right, the blonde one was missing. “Where did he go?”

“ _Pfft. Slow_ and _stupid, Morrison. It’s a wonder these punks haven’t slagged you yet._ ”

“Reyes. Where.”

“ _Alright, fine. He went down that alley about two minutes ago. If you don’t limp like a dying dog, you might even be able to catch up,_ super soldier.” He was off before the ghost could finish taunting him. Of course, since the ghost was in his head, it didn’t stop talking just because he moved.

“ _Heh. This reminds me of the old days. Before Switzerland. Before Overwatch and Blackwatch_ ,” he said those names with such bitterness and hate, “ _you and me, running a mission. Like partners. Equals_.”

 _Gabe, you were always my equal._ He can’t risk exposure by saying it out loud. Sometimes, the ghost acknowledges his thoughts, sometimes not.

“ _Of course that was before the UN stepped in._ ” Not today then. Jack leaps down from one roof to the next and pulls out of his roll, feeling the ache of landing. The serum makes it so his joints don’t ache and he’s not out of breath, but he can still hurt when he hits the floor. “ _they poisoned everything. They ruined me, sent me out to do dirtier and dirtier missions. Had me keep their secrets, had me_ make _their secrets, sometimes. All under the board, of course, so when we got leaked, they could just blame me._ ”

Jack spots the beacon of blonde hair just ahead, finally. 

“ _But that’s not the worst part. No, the worst part was that they poisoned_ you _against_ me. _My oldest friend, and they made you blind to what they were doing to me. What they were turning me into. They were killing us all, and you never saw it_.” Jack grit his teeth; it always came back to this. The accusations, the rage, the hurt. He could have stopped this. He could have prevented Switzerland and saved Gabi and Halo and the others who died in that blast. If he’d noticed, if he’d paid a sliver of the attention he should have, things could have been different.

“ _You didn’t want to see it. You were happy leading your little band of_ heroes,” Jack’s used to Gabi’s derision about that term, “ _ignoring the corruption in the UN. The way the Watches were rotting from within._ ”

The blonde finally slows down and ducks too-casually into a motel. Jack flips his visor to infrared and tracks the signature as it walks through the building.

“ _You let us die with your inattention, Morrison. Just like Ambdul. And Hoffstedt. And Amari_.” He can’t close his eyes or plug his ears to drown out the hateful tone without losing track of the target. He watches the little red blob stop halfway down the hallway as another red blob approaches- presumably to open a door. Together, the two figures track into a room where they meet a third target, this one larger than the rest. 

That’s him. Leyva.

He needs a visual confirmation before he takes the shot.

Marking the room in his memory, he runs to the edge of the building and leaps into the alley below, ignoring the jar of impact. Creeping towards the motel, he finds the three figures again and checks the perimeter for guards. Surprisingly, there don’t seem to be any. Of course, guards on a random motel in the middle of Arizona would probably be suspicious. He steps forward, all he needs is a single peek in the window. He’s no sniper, but Amari hadn’t had the monopoly on tag and run tactics.

“ _We died because of your stupidity. Your arrogance. Just like you’re going to die now._ ”

Wait. What?

The ghost’s words serve as a warning a moment before the click of metal echoes in the otherwise quiet night.

 _Shit._ Monoid sentries. Stripped down omnics, with hardly anything left but primitive programming and sensors. Used only by those confident and rich enough to get their hands on ones that had been thoroughly stripped, with nothing omnic left within the metal shell. Highly illegal, extremely expensive, and morally deficient. Of course the biggest trafficker in the Western states would have them.

He makes it back to cover microseconds before the guns go off.

The ghost is laughing at him.

The shotgun he has feels flimsy in his hands. He’s adapted, but he still misses having something with a real kick to it. His visor shows that Leyva and his flunkies are moving, alerted by the gunfire. Cops aren’t likely far behind, even in this part of town. 

The monoids seem to be stationary- one blessing at least.

Jack makes a few mental calculations and takes a deep breath. Three monoids, one primary target, two secondaries. He has two shotguns, a pistol, and three knives. It’ll be rough, but doable. One more breath and he moves.

...

“ _He got away._ ”

Jack growls at the familiar voice’s sing-song tone. The dead man he’s looking at could pass for Leyva at a distance or thru infrared- he’s likely the man’s kin, the resemblance is so strong. But it’s definitely not his target.

Fuck.

“ _Back to square one, niño._ ”

He hears sirens a few blocks away. Seven minutes- it’s a better response than he’d honestly expected here. He collects his knives and scales a nearby building. It won’t do for them to find his equipment lying around, and lacking in any steady supply, he can’t afford to throw any away.

Time to regroup and figure out a new plan.

“ _Too bad, jefe. Maybe next time you’ll get him. Or maybe next time, you won’t be so lucky_.”

Maybe the ghost is right. His luck can’t last forever.

**Author's Note:**

> So I actually have a really long OW fic that I've been working on for forever, but until I have an ending point (and maybe a beta) for that I'm not gonna post it.
> 
> So have this weird little drabble instead!


End file.
